ANALYSIS OF THE NORMAL PERIPHERAL RETINAL VASCULAR PATTERN AND ITS CORRELATION WITH MICROVASCULAR ABNORMALITIES USING ULTRA-WIDEFIELD FLUORESCEIN ANGIOGRAPHY.

PURPOSE

To describe the retinal peripheral vascular morphology and to elucidate its relationship to microvascular abnormalities in normal fundus using ultra-widefield fluorescein angiography.

METHODS

A total of 242 eyes from 167 consecutive patients were categorized into 3 groups: bilateral normal (n = 64), normal with contralateral eye affected with vascular disease (n = 82), and early diabetic eyes (n = 96). Peripheral vascular morphology was described and classified according to the shape. Microvascular abnormalities such as capillary telangiectasia, microaneurysm, or vascular leakage were documented, and the relationship between those abnormalities in each groups were analyzed.

RESULTS

There were two distinctive peripheral vascular morphologies-loop and branching patterns. Microvascular abnormalities were more frequently found as loop patterns; this difference was most prominent when both eyes were normal. In case of normal eyes with contralateral eye affected with vascular disease or diabetic eyes, branching pattern microvascular abnormalities were relatively increased, whereas loop pattern still showed a large degree of microvascular abnormalities.

CONCLUSION

In normal retinal periphery, we observed microvascular abnormalities and their relationship with vascular morphology, which could be influenced by the condition of the contralateral eye or systemic disease such as diabetes mellitus.